


wrap the night around me

by hoodedmiho (missMHO)



Series: velocity of emotions [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DCU, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, The Flash 3x02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 09:28:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9117757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missMHO/pseuds/hoodedmiho
Summary: “I went back in time… I went back to that damned night and saved my mom… It created an alternate timeline.”Oliver stares at Barry, dumbfounded. Once again the speedster makes him re-evaluate his belief in the impossible...or: Barry went to Oliver (and not Felicity) to talk about Flashpoint.





	

**Author's Note:**

> As you can see this fic is part of a series. I started to come up with some various scenes from the lives of Barry and Oliver as soulmates and decided to set them all in one universe. I don't want to take upon myself to write the whole long story because I simply don't have time for that at his point in my life. Thus, this series within which I'll be adding more snippets of this au whenver I feel like writing some and I find time to do it. I hope you'll enjoy :)  
> ___
> 
> As always big thank you for [kasssumi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kasssumi) and [thekasialin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekasialin) who took a look at it to check whether it's not a total disaster. I'm still not a native speaker of English and this story was not beta'd by one. I'm sorry for any mistakes!
> 
> Title was taken from "Love is blindness" by Jack White.

Star City seems quiet viewed through the windows of his flat but Oliver isn’t easily fooled by the dark tranquility. He’s sure there will be work for the city’s vigilantes though he wouldn’t mind an uneventful run on the rooftops tonight. There’s a sense of accomplishment to such nights even if the next one the crime awakens again and reminds them that their crusade is not yet done. Probably never will be.

Oliver is just cleaning up after dinner to be all set to go out into the night, when the empty silence gets broken by a familiar and unmistakable sound of an arriving speedster.

“Barry?” he asks loud enough to be heard in most of the flat and then he suddenly has an armful of his soulmate.

He isn't given a chance to query about Barry’s visit because a second later there are lips on his and well, questions can come later. But then the kiss becomes a little bit too desperate and Oliver can taste salt on his tongue - this isn't right.

He withdraws and there are indeed tears running down Barry's cheeks but before Oliver can look questioningly into his eyes, Barry hides his face into the archer’s neck.

“What is it, Bar?”

The speedster takes a deep breath before he answers, his voice shaking.

“I messed up, Ollie, I so messed up…”

Oliver kisses the top of Barry’s head before scooping him into his arms and carrying his soulmate bridal style out of the kitchen. Barry doesn't even complain this time, just clutches to Oliver’s chest without a word. Oliver puts him down on the couch and joins him there, placing his arms around Barry's wretched form.

“Talk to me. Or don't, if you don't feel like it now. I'm here whatever you need.”

Barry takes another deep breath and licks his lips nervously. The tears have stopped for now but the speedster still looks miserable and lost.

“I did it, Ollie,” he starts, his fingers picking on his sleeve. “I saved my parents.”

Oliver can't hide the shock blooming on his face and Barry flinches. Oliver curses himself internally.

“They're alive?” he prompts Barry to continue.

“Not anymore.”

They both sit a moment in silence, taking their time for the words to sink in.

“I went back in time… I went back to that damned night and saved my mom… It created an alternate timeline.”

Oliver stares at Barry, dumbfounded. Once again the speedster makes him re-evaluate his belief in the impossible...

“In that timeline, my mom and dad lived happily to see me grow up. With them.”

This time it's Oliver’s turn to take a deep shuddering breath. If he could have a chance to bring back either of his parents, to stop their deaths…

He closes his eyes as the images of guns fired against heads and bloodied swords flash in his head. This time it's Barry who grounds him with a squeeze of the archer's hand.

“Sorry, I just… Tonight is about you,” Oliver says, stopping his thoughts from wandering off the matter at hand. Barry smiles at him even though it doesn't reach his eyes.

“It's always about both of us.”

Oliver squeezes Barry's hand back as a sign of agreement and an encouragement to continue.

“That new timeline I created, it's called Flashpoint… Because I didn't just change my life, I changed the _whole_ timeline, Ollie. Wally and Iris were crimefighters, Caitlin was an actual M.D., Cisco was a billionaire _douche_ \- no offense intended!” he adds suddenly as if realising who he's speaking to.

“None taken, I _was_ a _billionaire douche_ and I live with it.”

Barry's lips twitch into a slight smile but a haunted look soon returns to his face.

“ _A lot_ of things were different, but…”

“You were happy to live the life you'd have had if you grew up with your parents,” Oliver finishes for him and Barry nods, guilt visible in his eyes.

“This timeline, from what I understand, is no more. Why did you come back _here_?”

Here. To the sorrow. To the disappointment. To the deaths.

“I got my mom and dad back but Flashpoint wasn't perfect,” Barry bites his lip in hesitation.

“Maybe your friends were a bit different but I'm sure that no matter the timeline you'd be able to build a relationship with them,” Oliver says, assuming this was what disturbed Barry's life in Flashpoint but the speedster snorts at his words and shakes his head, then says something like “you didn't even _ask,_ when will you stop diminishing your importance in my life, _god_ ” under his breath, or at least this is what Oliver gets from his swift muttering. Then one of Barry's hands travels to Oliver’s chest to rest over his heart, where his soulmate mark is.

“You were still _mine_ in Flashpoint, nothing changed about the mark on my skin and thinking about being with you still felt just _right_ but--”

Oliver raises one eyebrow questioningly.

“But you never came back from the island... Starling was in ruins without its vigilante… I checked the news a couple of times a _day_ for any new information on the _Queen’s Gambit_ , telling myself that your return was simply delayed, that you were somewhere out there and _alive_ … It was as if I couldn't have all the people I love in my life at the same time, when I had my parents you weren't there for me to find and the Wests were strangers to me…”

Oliver has to keep his emotions from showing on his face. He's still not used to thinking about Barry, this brilliant kind man, _loving_ him. No matter the marks on their chests and grand words like soulmates. Oliver isn't good enough to be at the receiving end of love from Barry Allen…

“Ollie, _stop,_ ” Barry says as if he were able to look into his head. Maybe he is, their bond is still developing and they’ll share their emotions more and more as time passes… Or maybe it's just Barry knowing Oliver enough.

“Sorry…”

Then Barry tells him all about the speed force eating away his memories, the sheer terror at the realisation that he can't remember the first time he felt like Joe’s son or growing up with Iris or how he saw Oliver’s mark for the first time. He tells Oliver about imprisoning Eobard Thawne and about Wally being the Kid Flash of Central City and his falling as a hero. Barry tells him how he asked Thawne to _murder his own mother_.

Throughout the whole evening, the archer feels like Barry is waiting to be screamed at and disapproved of but how could Oliver judge him when his own sister was resurrected, when Oliver risked his own life to bring back Sara’s soul, when Barry’s ability to run back in time saved Oliver himself and all of their friends from Savage?

So after Barry finishes his recollection, Oliver takes his face into his hands and looks straight into these emerald eyes sparkling with the golden energy of the speed force.

“You're not a god, Barry,” he says, his voice rough. “You've been using your powers for good from the very beginning. No one has the right to judge you when you try to use them for a selfish purpose for once.”

“But I’ve _changed_ things, Ollie. Iris isn't talking with Joe, Cisco’s brother is dead, and god knows what else is different, I--”

“And you'll deal with it. Joe, Iris, your team… We all love you and we'll help you deal with the consequences. You brought all these people together, Barry, even if now some things are different, you're still _you_ and that means you can be the cement to keep the people who care about you together. Change happens. Tragedy happens. People make choices, and those choices affect everyone else.”

Barry looks at him with a mixture of disbelief and fondness.

“Thank you,” is all he manages to say.

Oliver draws him closer into a tight embrace, willing his brain to stop coming up with _what-ifs_ about Barry not being in his life, about never coming back to his city...

“I am so tired…” Barry sighs into his chest and Oliver scoops into his arms again and carries him all the way to the bedroom. Barry still doesn't complain.

жжж

It's a routine for him by now to check the news for anything related to the Queen family. Barry eats breakfast and scrolls through what his alert app gathered from a plethora of portals, fishing for anything on _Queen’s Gambit_. It's as mechanical as making himself coffee in the morning. Up until this ritual actually gives a result.

Barry stares almost without cognizance at the article about finding Oliver Queen.

Or rather Oliver Queen’s body.

He stares at the screen for so long he's late for work but that's not anything new. Today though, he doesn't run in late with an apology on his lips. Today he takes a day off and runs to Starling.

He needs to _see_.

ж

Moira Queen is mostly as he remembered her from their brief acquaintance at the banquet. Poised and full of elegance, even in grief.

When he introduces himself as Oliver’s soulmate, the first reaction he gets is hostility. He's not surprised, there must have been countless people accosting them with such a claim - for fame and money. But then he shows the mark and Moira’s eyes soften.

“What do you want, Mr Allen?”

“I just want to see him.”

She seems taken aback at first but then something akin to understanding appears on her face. She nods.

She tells him the story on their way to the morgue. He's a bit surprised by her company - she was just leaving after her identification - but maybe she wants to get to know her son's soulmate even for a few minutes, get a tiny glimpse at the potential life they could have had together.

She tells him Oliver was found drifting in a raft. Wherever he spent the last years, he got shot there and, with a bleeding gunshot wound, he set off into the waters. He bled out to death and within the next hour his body was found by fishermen.

Barry takes the information in and _knows_ it was ARGUS. _His_ Oliver from the original timeline gave him only bits and pieces of his time away but Barry knows he worked with Waller during those five years. And this story? It totally sounds like a cover up for a mission went wrong.

But Barry doesn't have time for further analysis because they arrive at the morgue. Suddenly Barry doesn't feel like he's ready.

“You don't have to, if it's too much,” Moira says as if sensing his distress. “It's not a shame to fear death.”

Barry smiles sadly.

“I'm a CSI for CCPD, Mrs Queen. It's not really about death but…”

Only now he realises that his hand is over his chest, right where his mark is.

Moira nods at him empathetically and they enter. She quickly explains the situation to the worker whom Barry cannot bring himself to pay attention to. His heart is hammering in his chest. He doesn’t really remember taking these few steps into the next room but then he's standing in front of a cold table with his soulmate’s cold body lying on it.

It's Oliver, without a doubt. But he seems all _wrong,_ so pale and so still. There are some scars Barry remembers and some wounds he has never seen before - and didn’t want to see. And the green lightning bolt is right there over Oliver’s heart.

“Ollie…” he whispers and it turns into a sob. He never wanted _this._ He got his parents back but if it is by such a cost--

He's shaking all over, trying to find composure and failing miserably. This is all so _wrong._

Someone is speaking to him but Barry cannot focus enough on the words to understand what they're trying to say to him. Is it Moira? Or the pathologist?

Barry closes his eyes and tries to aim his attention at that voice.

“Barry, come back to me.”

Oliver? But--

жжж

It feels more like being forcefully thrown into consciousness than waking up. He's lying in Oliver’s arms, one of the archer’s hands is stroking his hair soothingly.

“There you are, Barry. You're with me, you're safe.”

Barry’s still shaking. Now that he's awake he realises this is not the first time he had that dream. In Flashpoint it haunted him every couple of days but back there he always woke up alone and a complete mess. Now, he's a mess as well but…

“It’s okay, you're with me,” Oliver repeats and Barry buries his head into his soulmate’s chest. His beating heart is the most calming sound Barry's ever heard... But no matter the closeness, the sheer certainty of his soulmate being right there, breathing and alive, the images from his dream replay in his head over and over again.

He withdraws from Oliver’s embrace. “I… I need to…”

Oliver looks at him with such concern Barry is sure he would do _whatever_ would come at the end of that sentence. Barry leans in to leave a short kiss on the other man’s lips, the familiar scratch of Oliver’s beard making him feel more grounded.

“I need to go for a run,” Barry finally admits, almost shyly. He can’t really explain it - it’s almost as if the speed force could eat away the bad dreams just as it gnawed on his memories in Flashpoint. Barry knows it won’t literally take away his nightmares, not matter how convenient that would be, but the yearn for a run is still there. Oliver nods in understanding, his arms returning to his sides to free the speedster’s movements.

But Barry needs something from him, too.

“You’ll be here when I get back?” he asks, unable to hide his embarrassment at the query. It feels ridiculous but he must hear it from Oliver.

“Of course,” Oliver replies with a small knowing smile. “I’ll be here.”

ж

Barry finds Oliver in the kitchen again. This time, however, there are three boxes of deliciously smelling pizza on the dining table and the man himself is sipping coffee from his _Best Mayor Ever_ cup which Barry got him as a gift. The archer looks sleepy and the t-shirt he threw on himself is inside out.

With the speed force still buzzing in his veins, the nightmares blurred by the run, and such a scene to come back to, Barry feels something warm stir in his chest and despite everything he can’t stop a grin from blooming on his face.

“That’s a view worth losing sleep over,” Oliver comments, putting his mug down. Barry walks right into his spread out arms and hums with satisfaction when Oliver pulls him closer to sit on his lap. After a welcome kiss, Barry looks conspicuously in the direction of the pizza boxes.

“I see you weren’t just lazing around in bed.”

“Well, I know what _a run_ means in your dictionary and the speed force needs to be fed,” Oliver shrugs. Barry snorts and opens one of the boxes to eat the first slice. Oliver nuzzles his neck sleepily.

“I got one half with mushrooms so you’ll leave me some,” the archer announces as Barry starts on the second slice.

“Smart strategy, Mr Mayor.”

Barry may have made some irreversible mistakes recently but it is comforting to know that _this_ , his soulmate and their relationship, can't be shaken by his foolish acts and messed up timelines. No matter what, they are who they are, imperfect and ideal.

 

**Author's Note:**

> PS: You can find me on [tumblr](http://missmho.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/hoodedmiho) if you even want to fangirl over flarrow crossovers.


End file.
